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This is my new favorite backpacking dinner. I used…

This is my new favorite backpacking dinner. I used to swear by Chili Mac but after having this super cheesy meal I am in love. I am a cheese lover and this thing has real cheese and lots of it! It's so delicious, what else can I say.

Highly recommended for cheese lovers. The best way to clean your cheesy spork is with your mouth. If you eat it out of a container the best way to clean that is with your spork and then eat the cheese!

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One of the most hyped and least flavorful meals from…

One of the most hyped and least flavorful meals from Mountain House, lacking the signature and bold Italian herbs and seasonings that set that style of cuisine apart. If Chef Boyardee could be dehydrated and put in a bag instead of a can, it probably would taste much the same as this dish. The only thing it has on the Chef? Cheese. Trouble is, it sticks so much to your utensil it winds up being more of a headache than a garnish. Not good, not bad, and still edible, it got the job done. Sorry, folks, but this one just wasn't for me.

Pros

Equal amount of pasta, meat, cheese, and sauce

1 bag is more than enough for one hungry dude (or dude-ette)

First freeze-dried meal approved by Jim Davis' Garfield the Cat

Cons

Removing this cheese from your spoon is like removing an oil spill from a duck — good luck!

Noodles small, nondescript, and on the soggy side of "al dente"

Meat — if modeled after Italian sausage — is completely devoid of seasoning

Sauce is overly sweet and smooth — could be chunkier and spicier

Needs a wider variety and range of textures

For me, there're some high standards when it comes to lasagna: my mother makes the best I've ever eaten (homemade or restaurant-made), and my girlfriend comes from an Italian family that's skilled in the kitchen. You could say MH had the odds stacked against them even before I plunged my spoon into the freezer bag, but I gave this meal the same honest chance I'd give to another.

I hate, hate, HATE not liking a meal — trust me, because neither does my stomach — but this one just wasn't the delicious Italian classic-in-a-bag I was expecting.

USE

Let it be said, too, that this was my dinner on night #2 of a three-day section hike of Shawnee National Forest. The second day's hike was, literally, twice as long as the first: 16 miles. Atop that, I was hiking twice the original distance still sore from the first day. After hiking well past my happy place and making camp, I was counting on a bang-up meal to ease my pain and warm me up - temperatures that night were forecasted to dip into the 40's. Breakfast and lunch (and snacks, too) were all definitely eaten on the day this meal was consumed. This meal didn't quite live up to the hype, nor did it meet my expectations.

THE GREAT LASAGNA CRISIS OF 2013

Ironically, I wasn't the only guy on this trip who'd lasagna on his menu.

I bought mine from Sports Authority (only shop near home that sells it), and I paid several dollars more. When it comes to the more popular MH meals, you're better off going to the big-box store than the specialty shop.

INGREDIENTS

It has all the basic and correct components: noodles, meat, cheese, and sauce.

Being a pasta dish, it almost goes without saying - but this one isn't Gluten-free, folks.

Serving Size: 1 Cup

Servings Per Container: 2.5

Calories Per Serving: 240

Calories From Fat: 80

Total Fat: 8g

Saturated Fat: 3.5g

Trans Fat: 0g

Cholesterol: 30mg

Sodium: 300mg

Carbohydrates: 28g

Potassium: 300mg

Dietary Fiber: 2g

Sugars: 6g

Protein: 14g

PREP

Stupid simple. By now I could prep one of these meals blindfolded with a hand tied behind my back.

Since one of my problems with this dish was a thin sauce and soggy noodles, I actually wouldn't give my normal advice and would caution you against letting this rehydrate longer than the recommended time of 8-9 minutes.

I would stand by my other regular tip, and suggest you under-pour the recommended 2 cups of water with the hope it'll make for firmer noodles and a thicker, chunkier sauce.

PACKAGING

Like a Ziploc bag.

Pre-filled with food.

Just add water.

You know how I feel about these things — they double as trash bags, hold heat in well, and stand up straighter than other FD meal bags.

NOODLES

Small and on the soggier side of "al dente."

I know they're not going to shove half a pan full of lasagna in a bag and expect it to rehydrate properly. But these noodles err on the size of a larger linguine, when they could afford to be the size of a wide, ribbon-like egg noodle.

SAUCE

Strangely sweet and reminiscent of something in a Chef Boyardee can. It's not spicy, not tangy, and more plain than anything. There's no tomato-tinged acidity I'd expect in my lasagna, nor is there any chunky tomato texture to it. It's as smooth as a fresh-blended juice.

MEAT (BEEF)

Serviceable and without much flavor or seasoning. A hint of oregano, or something like a little fennel seed would be an incredible touch, and go a long way. Small flavors like that are what make Italian food just that. MH got the big picture, but completely missed the small details.

CHEESE

And the cheese.

Oh, the cheese.

Ugh, the cheese.

Yes, it's real, and yes, it's stringy.

But it sticks like glue to a plastic spoon. I had to scrape the spoon off against my teeth after every bite, otherwise, I was going to make dishwashing more and more difficult with each successive bite. This is my single biggest problem with this dish. Vince (pillowthread) was "enjoying" a package of MH lasagna at the same time I was, and we couldn't help but keep grimacing at another about the cheese.

Second to that, it could use heartier noodles that're larger, a sauce with more complexity and less sweetness, and some robust Italian seasoning in the meat.

TASTE AND FLAVOR

There are no noticeable flecks of herbs or seasoning, and the dish as a whole suffers from a mediocre, homogenized flavor. Sure, I could pack in herbs and spices, but this would defeat the ease of preparation and simplicity of a freeze-dried meal. If MH threw in a packet of seasoning I could mix in, hey, problem solved.

BEST FOR

Garfield the Cat.

Your favorite house pet.

Anyone but me. Please, God, anyone but me.

3.5 stars - while not [in my own opinion] good, and while not bad, it still was edible, and still did fill me up.

Took this meal out while hiking the AT. It was the…

Took this meal out while hiking the AT. It was the best meal I've ever had while out and about.

Pros: delicious. easy to cook. will feed two with no problem.very little water needed to rehydrate. light weight. easy to pack.

Cons: rehydration time is off, you'll need to let stand for twenty minutes to get complete hydration without any crunchy pasta bits. Cheese will clump on your eating utensil. Other hikers will hate you because you'll be complaining about all the cheese on your eating utensil.

Bottom line: I wish I had brought more of these on the trip, they are absolutely the best trail food money can buy. BTW they are not as expensive as some proclaim. Found mine at Walmart for ($6). Enjoy!

You don't get much better when it comes to rehydrated…

As with most of these meals, avoid overwatering and stir just enough to mix in all the dry contents that hide in the corners.

Nice hearty portions (bag for 2 does).

Decent tomato flavor, good noodle flavor and LOTS of cheese. It's no Olive Garden, but I've yet to have a fellow hike say anything other than compliments/appreciation for this meal at the end of a long day of hiking.

Clean up can be a bit challenging because of all the cheese, but it's worth it.

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The good: Had this on a canoe trip. It looked and…

The good: Had this on a canoe trip. It looked and smelled pretty good.

The weather is still fairly cold (below freezing) at nights. Boiled some hot water and let it sit in the bag for 10 minutes. It provided a tasty hot meal on a cold night and one bag can decently feed 3 "Americans" if you add a little extra water, but, of course, it will be more like soup.

Didn't have any heartburn or ill effects after eating it. Not a lot of meat inside but not a skimpy amount either. Easy to follow instruction and you can eat right out of the bag.

This lasagna has REAL cheese in it. After I put the hot water in, there was actually stringy cheese in it. Not at all what I expected.

The bad: The downside is the price. All freeze-dried meals seem to maintain a pricey nature, so if you don't have very much spare change rattling around then you're better off with something like canned soup. But for you hiking/camping/biking fanatics with plenty of money to spare, these meals are exactly what I would recommend. As with all Mountain House products the packaging could be more compact.

The ugly: It was considerably more acidic tasting than I expected. I personally didn't really enjoy it, but I admit that it's not much worse than the frozen stuff you can pick up in a grocery store, aside from the texture (which still wasn't horrible).

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